Pasadena OBON July 20 & 21 will consist of:
a. REQUEST FOR TEA HOUSE PHOTOS; Temple members and the greater community might have photos pertaining to the history of the tea house. A call will be advertised for images and a campaign to collect pictures will be launched at the 2019 OBON. Side Street Project staff will be at hand to digitize these images for the Temples archive. They will supply the computer, scanners and staff. This way, members can keep their original photographs.
b. Tea Ceremony: In the past, the late Sakahara Sensei would give tea ceremony demonstrations at the OBON. This has not happened for some time now. We would like to ask Jose Salcedo, who has continued Sakahara Sensei’s practice, to resurrect this tradition at this year’s OBON.
c. Ninomiya Pop Up: Paralleling the Invisible Tea House project is another art project by Nakagawa at
Cal State University Dominguez Hills. He has spent a year researching the archives of the Ninomiya Photo Studio, once located in Little Tokyo. This 100,000-image archive is preserved in the Gerth Archives Special Collections at CSUDH. An exhibition of Nakagawa’s art responses is on display at the University gallery till mid-September 2019 and a POP UP related to the exhibition will be on display at the 2019 OBON. The Ninomiya POP UP is a make-believe photo studio made up of a large format camera, back drop and information on the historic studio. Participants are encouraged to take a selfie. If they post it with the hashtag, they will receive a limited-edition zine from the exhibition. Deema Aljibeh, CSUDH, will be soliciting CSUDH staff and students to volunteer for the two-day OBON for the Ninomiya Pop Up.